Ranji Trophy 2015, Group B: Uttar Pradesh escape with a draw against Mumbai’s might

Abhishek Nayar celebrates the wicket of UP’s Piyush Chawla during Ranji trophy match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday. (Source: PTI)

Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 440, chasing hosts Mumbai’s huge first innings total of 610 for 9 declared, before the Ranji Trophy Group B match ended in a draw here today with the visitors making 140 in the second essay after following on.

Starting the day at the overnight 350 for five, trailing the home team by 260 runs, UP lost both their overnight not out batsmen Eklavya Dwivedi (66) and Piyush Chawal (88) in the morning session and their slim hopes of gaining the first innings lead fizzled out.

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Medium pacer Abhishek Nayar, Mumbai’s best bowler of this type on view at the slow-paced Wankhede Stadium track, dismissed both the batsmen before left arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar polished off the tail to bring the UP first innings to an end and give Mumbai a huge lead of 170 runs.

Nayar and Dabholkar finished with four wickets apiece before their captain Aditya Tare asked UP to follow on with a view to try and gain an outright victory.

But the ploy did not work as UP recovered from the loss of an early wicket (Dwivedi for 6) through an unbeaten second wicket partnership of 128 runs between Himanshu Asnora (68 not out) and Umang Sharma (62 not out), who both compiled their second half centuries of the game.

Play was called off by mutual agreement before the start of the mandatory overs.

Mumbai gained three points by virtue of taking the first innings lead and remained on top of Group B with 20 points while UP had 14, including one from this game, to be sixth in the nine-team group.

Mumbai clash next with Railways here from November 15-18 while UP host Tamil Nadu on the same dates.

Brief scores: Mumbai 610 for 9 declared drew with Uttar Pradesh 440 (H Asnora 92, U Sharma 53, Sarfaraz Khan 44, E Dwivedi 66, P Chawla 84; V Dabholkar 4 for 116, A Nayar 4 for 63) and 140 for 1 (H Asnora not out 68, U Sharma not out 62; V Dabholkar 1 for 30). Points: Mumbai 3; UP 1.

All-round Axar helps Gujarat bag bonus point against Baroda

A strong all-round show by Axar Patel helped Gujarat thrash Baroda by an innings and 46 runs to bag a bonus point in the Group B Ranji Trophy cricket encounter on Tuesday.

After a gutsy 81 in Gujarat’s only batting outing, Axar bagged three and four wickets respectively in the first and second Baroda innings to lead the rout.

Starting the day on 81 for four while following-on, Baroda crashed to 207 all out with Axar and off-spinner Rujul Bhatt bagging four wickets apiece.

Skipper Ambati Rayudu (43) and Hardik Pandya (43) fought hard but the rest of teh batting just fell apart.

The Parthiv Patel-led side had gained the upper hand from the very start after the hosts rode on opener Priyank Kirit Panchal’s 128 to post 505 in their only outing.

Brief Scores:

Gujarat 505

Baroda 252 and 207 all out in 73.4 overs (Ambati Rayudu 43, Hardik Pandya 43; Axar Patel 4-71, Rujul Bhatt 4-48).

Points: Gujarat 7, Baroda 0. 

Andhra-TN match ends in draw

After two days had been washed out owing to rain, Andhra and Tamil Nadu shared a point each after their Group B Ranji Trophy match ended in a draw at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.

When the stumps were drawn on the fourth and final day, Tamil Nadu were 164 for seven in 37 overs.

Opting to bat after winning the toss, Andhra were all out for 203 in 77.2 overs on the first day of the game.

Baba Indrajith top-scored for the hosts with a 51-ball 43.

Tamil Nadu now have 16 points from five matches, while Andhra totalled 10 from six games.

Tamil Nadu take on Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur in the next round.